


A Study in Organics

by Rushofpanic



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: AU, Alternative universe - Reapers unaware of being controlled, Human/Reaper, Other, alternative ending, kind of romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-11
Updated: 2016-05-11
Packaged: 2018-06-07 20:07:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6822175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rushofpanic/pseuds/Rushofpanic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Instead of bending to the Catalyst's will, Jane Shepard makes a deal with Harbinger.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Study in Organics

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is my take on the popular subject of ME3 ending and what happens after it. I've tried not to bend the canon too much but there is one major deviation - the Reapers are self-aware individuals instead of the canonical "hive mind" and were unaware of being programmed by the Catalyst.   
> The pairing is unusual and fun to explore, and I'm keeping most of the first chapters T-rated for language (swearing is T, right?). Anyway, I don't have a beta for this work, so comments are very welcome :)

"- Those are your options."  
The emotionless physiognomy of the Catalyst seemed like the epitome of smugness to Shepard. She could not possibly believe that after all they have been through, after all those horrible sacrifices, she had to deal with an insane AI.   
"- Time is short, Shepard. You have to choose now."  
Fucking bastard. He dared to insist.   
Jane looked up at the three sections again.   
No. This was simple madness. Either destroy everyone and half-fulfil what they were trying to avoid, or die in various ways, having to change everyone by force in one. The thing he, no, it, said was also trying to avoid itself. There was more sense in Illusive Man's last speech than in the code of that AI. Oh wait, that AI was the thing controlling him. 

There just had to be another way.   
Commander looked around desperately. One thing it calculated right was that they were indeed vastly outnumbered. She looked helplessly at a Reaper capital ship floating by, a mortifying confirmation of her fears.   
And then it dawned on her.   
Without a second thought, as it was dangerous enough to even attempt to grasp the absurdity of this situation, she held her hand to the comm.   
"- Hackett? This is Commander Shepard. I have severe complications on my end. Do you copy?"  
"- Yes, Shepard, what is it? Talk fast, we won't be able to hold on for long."  
Jane inhaled. This would definitely be either the best or the worst idea in history of all cycles.   
"- Then there is no time to lose. Admiral", - she swallowed a nervous lump, - "I need you to get me Harbinger."   
His reaction was more than predictable.   
"- Get you...what? Shepard, I-I don't understand", - even his confident command voice faltered at the notion.   
"- I am more aware of all the problems with it than you are, but this is crucial. I have literally seconds. Can you do it?"   
"- I...must need more information. - the Admiral finally gathered himself."   
"- I need to speak with him directly. Establish a link to my comm. Contact EDI, she may be of help."   
"- Shepard, this is truly insane!"  
"- No time for that! Can you do it?"   
For the first time ever she let herself raise her voice at the Admiral.   
A heavy pause fell on the other end.   
"- Shepard, this will be on you. Hackett out." 

The wait felt as if a few hundred of new cycles passed. The Catalyst projection had predictably vanished, although the energy flow didn't cease. Staring into it, Shepard could feel the dried blood on her hands turning liquid again as her palms sweated. 

In reality, however, the Alliance managed to pull off this mission impossible in record time. What sorcery was involved, she didn't want to know, but a low familiar voice suddenly appeared in her comm.   
"- Shepard."   
"- Harbinger?"  
The question was rhetorical, more of a tribute to her utter astonishment, and was taken as such.   
"- A lot of humans were ready to die for this exchange. It made me believe it was outstandingly important. I'm listening."   
This was it.   
"- Yes. I have no idea how this will work, but I think I have information that is vital to you."   
This was true - in the short time the Alliance were herding her the leader of the Reapers, she didn't manage to come up with the vaguest idea of a plan. So she did what she did best - went in way over her head and improvised.  
"- The possibility of this is remarkably low", - the voice calmly stated and Shepard's already struggling heart skipped a beat, - "Even lower is the probability you would want to share it with me. I am intrigued."   
"- The Crucible. As you know, it is a power source. But there exists the Catalyst, hidden in the Citadel. It is a rogue AI and it claims to be controlling you. All of you. Directly."  
The comm went silent and Jane could hear her heart rate climb yet again. Treacherous dread started slowly filling her veins as no further reply came from the other after a minute passed. "Of course", went through her head, "He must be part of that damn Catalyst".   
"- Impossible", - just as she concluded Harbinger had dropped the link, the radio sprung back to life.   
There was a sudden change in the Reaper's tone - the word was pronounced hurriedly and sharply, in stark contrast to his usual calm and weighty manner. Shepard had little idea and even less time to guess whether Reapers had emotions, but that did sound like uncertainty to her. A nanoscopic beam of hope lit up in her mind.   
Meanwhile, the voice continued, steadying.   
"- If this is an attempt to buy you time, it is pathetic, Shepard. I am certain of my full independence."   
The soldier's eyes widened at his words and adrenaline started to pump through her systems, bringing them back to full capabilities with this sudden hope. She clutched her fingers onto the comm in an irrational projection of her feelings.   
"Dear Lord from above", Jane thought, almost feeling religious, "I was right".   
"- You are wrong", - it took tremendous effort from the Commander to speak clearly and emotionlessly, - "You were being programmed by it all along. I can prove it."  
She struggled for every bit of confidence that otherwise came naturally to her, in reality almost afraid to breathe. The fact the fate of so many species lay on her shoulders hit her hard the second she realised her plan may actually work.   
"- You can prove nothing, human!" - Harbinger snapped, leaving no room for doubting the existence of his emotions when he resorted to arrogance to save his status, - "What you are trying to make up to prolong your existence is simply pitiful!"   
"- I would never have sent an entire fleet to almost certain death to establish contact with you so that you could hear fairytales!", - she found herself raising her voice, blood thrumming madly in her temples, - "I have seen it with my own eyes."   
She knew she had a point. As simple and plain as it was, combined with the Reaper's obvious doubt it had to make him at least consider it.   
"- How exactly do you wish to prove it?" - a calmer reply came following a brief radio silence.   
Damn it. The question was impeccable in its logic and she should have expected it. But she didn't. And now that tiny overlooked detail was threatening to destroy all her efforts.   
Her mind started racing through the options. But despite her exceptional talent for brainstorming insane in their geniality ideas on the spot under stress, her brain seemed to fail her this time. Nor was the situation helped by the fact the Catalyst projection had spitefully disappeared.   
"- My assumptions appear to have been correct. This exchange is over." - Harbinger spoke after rather politely waiting for her ideas.   
"- No, wait! I've seen it, it's in my brain, my memory...", - a whole new level of a crazy solution emerged in Shepard's mind, - "You can read that. Indoctrinate me."   
All doubts were stripped from her voice, instead it was strengthened with determination and sincerity. She had gone too far with her experimental plan to back out. And she would do her damnedest to bring success to it if it was the last thing she did.   
Harbinger seemed to have been taken aback, unintelligible hums being only indicators of his continued interest in the exchange. Apparently even for a Reaper, Shepard's suggestion took a moment to be comprehended.   
"- You are asking for it to be done?" - his voice finally came with a hint of surprise.   
"- Yes. I don't know how to prove my words to you otherwise." - the Commander inhaled deeply as heavy silence fell in the comm. No, she didn't lose one bit of her confidence even after Harbinger himself questioned her intentions. She was ready for whatever came her way.   
Suddenly, a familiar haze started clouding her vision, similar to the one she had just experienced with the Illusive Man. The difference was that this time it was constant and darkening at a defined rate, lacking random halts and surges that someone who had barely grasped the concept was making. It felt like an immensely strong hand latched onto her throat, restricting her breathing, and then creeping its way up to her brain. When it settled there, the soldier felt paralysed, as if suddenly all her limbs were hooked up on strings like a marionette. She only just had a similar experience - but this time Jane was paradoxically sweating in an effort to not resist.   
In a matter of seconds she stopped making even the barest outlines of the outer world from behind the thick black smoke her vision consisted of now. Her consciousness was slipping, relinquishing control to something more powerful that started methodically raking through her thoughts. And that was the moment her very recent memories started flashing in front of her eyes at a speed just enough to grasp the basic events.   
There she was, limping towards the beam and regaining awareness on the Citadel. Then there was Anderson, typing away at the console before a sudden interrupt. A shot was taken at his torso as she failed to restore control of herself. Another one at the Illusive Man husk. They sat with Anderson and it felt like they did it, it was finally over. She watched him draw his last breath with this feeling, readying herself to follow. And then Hackett reawakened her via the radio. Something wasn't right, the Crucible wasn't firing. She tried crawling her way to the console but the last bits of energy were simply drained away. Then, she met the Catalyst.   
From that point, the flow her memories suddenly slowed down and she felt another mind intruding, a minor part of it in fact, analysing each tiniest detail of the events. Soon the manipulations Harbinger was making with her mind went beyond her understanding and she felt her consciousness slipping away even further. Not long after, she lost track of time and scared, Jane desperately tried to cling back to it.   
That was when it all came to an abrupt halt.   
Shepard gasped for air as she was released from the Reaper's mental grasp. Although her awareness not fully restored after the intrusion, her instincts were sharp as ever and she grabbed hold of the radio again. Parallel to that, for a brief moment she felt a slight tinge of surprise at being released from indoctrination.   
Harbinger's voice appeared before she could say a word.   
"- You have not lied, Shepard." - he simply stated. The confidence and arrogance in his voice vanished and oddly, he sounded confused.   
"- Not in a position to lie here. You have seen the options it gave me, haven't you? Well, I don't like any of them. Will you give me an alternative?"   
It was the question she was working up to during the whole of their exchange, the very moment that decided whether all her efforts were the greatest success or the greatest failure in history. Nothing was ever as important as that.   
"- You are doing me a great favour, human", - after a moment of consideration a reluctant admission came from his end, - "What do you want in return?" 

Overwhelmed by her success, Shepard almost blurted out her demand to end this war. Fortunately, a more rational part of her brain warned her that she shouldn't be so blunt with the uneasy Harbinger. Their five-second-old truce was beyond brittle and any negotiations required delicacy. The thing she was horrible at.   
"- Give us a chance", - Jane spoke after taking a moment to phrase her thoughts, - "Stop the harvest, at least for now. Maybe later you can calculate another solution, by yourself, without this AI programming you."   
Some sort of an angry mechanical snarl came from the Reaper at her last sentence and Shepard's heart sunk to her feet again.   
"- I find your request reasonable", - his words were carefully weighed, - "Perhaps your cycle does deserve a reassessment."   
"- You will do it?" - Jane's mind refused to believe this negotiation could be that simple.   
"- Yes." - and a click notified her that the Reaper had left the frequency.   
Holy shit. She couldn't have just made peace with the Reapers, could she? The reality of the situation was slow to hit her, making her gradually accept what wildly crazy action did she just pull off. Perhaps Hackett was right after all, the Normandy and its crew were the only asset needed to win this war?   
With realisation came a halt in the adrenaline production and it rapidly flushed from her veins. Struck by sudden fatigue and dizziness, only now could she recall how bad her injuries were. And without the hormones to numb the persistent pain throughout the whole of her body, her muscles started failing her.   
"- Shepard? Commander! Do you copy?" - and yet again Hackett's voice wouldn't let her give in to the weakness.   
"- Yes, Admiral, I'm here", - she said, fighting with the shaking of her voice.   
"- I'm getting reports that the Reapers have ceased their offensive and are retreating their forces. What on Earth have you done?" - the confidence in his tone was a poor mask for his astonishment.   
"- It's a hell of a story, Admiral, but it's not over yet. Do you have any reports on Harbinger?"  
"- Yes, he is headed to the Citadel, alone. Do we need to protect the Crucible?"  
"- No", - Shepard muted the comm for a second to not let Hackett hear the wheezing sound her injured airways made, - "And Admiral, no matter what he does to it, do not engage in combat. You have to trust me on that."   
Of course it was almost too much to ask but given the general oddity of the position they were in, she was sure he would listen. He had to.   
"- We've come so far", - the Admiral finally agreed, - "Do you need evac?"   
"- No. I need to see to it that he doesn't break the deal. I'll signal the Normandy for pick up."   
"- I'll send a few fighters to protect it. Whatever deal you made with Harbinger, I hope it works, for all of our sakes. Hackett out."   
Jane wasn't left in silence for long. A deafening Reaper klaxon from behind her back startled her, re-sharpening her vision with yet another surge of adrenaline. She turned around just in time to barely catch the silhouette of Harbinger before his whole form sank somewhere below the platform she stood on. A few clicks of enormous machinery were heard before the familiar sound of a Reaper cannon tore through the dead quiet of space.   
Simultaneously, the projection of the Catalyst appeared centimetres before her, making her flinch backwards.   
"- What have you done?!" - static passed through its shape. Another blast muted the rest of its speech and a wave of violent ripples tore through the hologram again, starting to disfigure it.   
"- Without one of those solutions your cycle is doomed!" - its voice started to hitch.   
"- The only thing that is doomed right now is you." - Shepard pointed out reasonably. A series of new blasts unequivocally supported her statement.   
"- You are making a mistake! You cannot set them free, they will join you in chaos! Order will no longer be possible to impose!" - the child's voice was gone and the mechanical vocalisation almost hurt Jane's ears.   
"- Watch me." - she grinned, disgust glowing in her eyes, - "You just can't let go of control"   
"- Without control there is only chaos. Organic life cannot impose order on itself."   
Shepard shook her head, the grin widening by itself.   
"- You didn't get it, did you?"   
She felt the pain slowly numbing, her brain choosing to ignore it. A bad sign, she knew, but coincidentally she could not care less. She straightened her back into the best military posture she could master in her condition.   
"- I will tell you again. The defining characteristic of all organic life is that we think for ourselves. Make our own choices. And we are not going to bend to the will of one AI, no matter how old it is. We will always have our own choice."   
Gathering the very last bits of energy to not lose her composure, she hoisted her pistol up at the projection and took a shot. Another pulse of ripples started rocking through its shape from where the bullet passed through. A few more blasts thundered in the artificial atmosphere and the projection crumbled into nameless bytes. Some sort of support snapped under the side of the platform, causing Shepard to land onto the metal. Through it she felt the shaking of other supports, a warning sign that those won't be holding on much longer either. "Time for evac" - flashed through her mind as she clenched her teeth in a struggle to raise her hand to the comm.   
Suddenly, a black boarding platform appeared, similar to the ones she remembered the Collectors use, and headed towards her. Softly, it touched down, lowering on its pillar to be at the relatively same height Shepard was.   
"- Get on." - Harbinger's voice echoed.   
Jane didn't need a second invitation, crawling her way onto it with titanic efforts. Her vision started to blur again steadily, lastly allowing her to recognise the darkening of her surroundings.   
"- Normandy? Do you copy?" - she murmured into the comm.   
"- Yes! Commander!" - as much as she appreciated Joker's worry, his overly enthusiastic tone hurt her ears right now, - "Do I bring the Normandy in for evac?"   
"- No, get her out of the Citadel's orbit as soon as possible", - Shepard guessed that explosions of Harbinger's and the amount of energy in the Crucible wouldn't mix well, - "Warn the fleet."   
\- "But...what about you, Commander?" - the pilot's voice dropped at least two octaves, husky with anxiety again.   
"- Harbinger picked me up. I'll be fine. If he gets me to a hospital." - her hand dropped from the comm, powers leaving her rapidly.   
"- What?! Commander! Shepard! Did Harbinger bring you aboard? Damn it, Shep, don't leave me hanging! Do you copy? Ah shit..." - Jeff's voice echoed as unconsciousness claimed her.


End file.
